For Sale Rare opportunity to purchase appreciating classic BEIGE BL TAT

[barrett]

Just testing the water here. Would anyone want to take on the Beige Bomber?

 

As most of you probably remember, we bought this a couple of years back to save it from being bummed for the low-mileage A-series by a tiresome Mini-licker. It came from one of the big cheeses in the Allegro Club but had frankly been neglected for a while. We got it all welded up (not the prettiest job, but seemingly solid enough) and chucked it through a test.

For various reasons this was my only running, reliable car for several months and I used it every day to commute 70 miles daily with few problems. I've only failed to complete a journey in it once, and that is because somebody had reversed into it the day before, snapping the bonnet release cable so I couldn't get at the problem (which is a capricious battery lead which occasionally decides to stop all teh electrics).

Since we have had it, we've done more than 10,000 miles in the thing (mostly me) and until I got my BX it was still doing sterling service as a daily hack. In that time it has had four new tyres, had the carb totally rebuilt, a load of welding and various other bits and bobs.

 

It looks like a total piece of shit, but as of today it has 12 months MoT with only one advisory (slight exhaust leak) and I'd be confident about it getting you anywhere with no bother.

 

Good points:

 

Beige

 

Four wheels

 

Most of the metal is not rusty

 

Super low mileage of 43,245!!!!!111! Which I think is actually 65,000 or summat as the speedo was replaced quite early in the car's life

 

EXCLUSIVE HL spec includes headrests and ashtray

 

Comes with lots of paperwork including a mentalist list of EVERY journey the first owner made with miles travelled etc scribbled in classic 'pensioner scrawl' and an owner's manual and a 1952 Coronation Special issue of the Picture Post which I found at Cranleigh tip.

 

Bad points:

 

Beige

 

Bonnet release is a bit of twisted wire sticking out the grille

 

Suspension is a bit low on the O/S F and it eats wheel bearings on that wheel

 

Some of the metal is rusty. Mainly the front wing corners in the usual place, but more or less every panel has a bit breaking through though as far as I can see it's all cosmetic

 

Massive dent in driver's door and the window only goes down a little bit 

 

Heater blower doesn't work

 

Driver's seat has collapsed. Has a couple of cushions stuffed underneath for maximum comfort

 

The brakes are terrifyingly shit

 

The clutch is 'on the floor' and will deffo need doing soon, but I reckon you could clutchless change on this without too much bother if it did expire in Morrison's car park or whatever

 

It's a fucking Allegro and it's horrid

 

Probably most annoyingly, if you sit in traffic on a hot day the engine will get very hot. It never runs properly at temp usually. This could be whole manner of things, but it has been like this since the day we got it and it's never overheated or got noticeably worse. Keep your eye on the gauge and you'll be alreet

 

The O/S sill trim was taken off for some welding and I never bothered to put it back on, all the little placca clips have been broken and frankly I just could not be arsed to do anything about it

 

Here it is on the day we picked it up, it looks much worse now

 

These RAPIDLY APPRECIATING CRASSICS have seemingly quadrupled in value in recent times, which is odd because they are fucking shit, so I don't think £632.27 is too far off the mark for this one.

It's got loads of tax which obviously WILL NOT COME WITH IT but I'm sure we can work summat out if I know you so you can get it home without having to tax it first etc

 

TL:DR:

1981 Allegro 1.3HL, beige, shitty but reliable, £630 but less if I like your face. It's in Brighton but I travel around a bit so could potentially view it somewhere else. Like Hove.

 

Boom!

[New POD]

Yeah, go on, it's not as if I like being married. I'm certain divorce would follow shortly after she found out it wasn't free.

 

look on this as a free Bump.

[Sigmund Fraud]

£630 for a series 3 ? It seems that I'll never be able to afford an Allegro again... Thank God !

[RobT]

Gary let me drive this old turd once and I found it charmingly awful, but also quite comfy despite the knackered seat.

 

BL scene-tax does seem to be afflicting Allegros these days, which means I can't afford it, sorry!

[barrett]

£630, £360, £1200... Something that isn't insulting would probably buy it as whatever you pay is still gonna be a load less than we've spent trying to sort it.

 

I may have downplayed its virtues somewhat, it is actually great fun to drive on the right roads, lovely controllable understeer and not enough power to get into trouble. I find the change on first/second quite a chore around town though and it's way under geared so motorways are a real slog. I did once see an indicated 91mph though and I'm inclined to believe it given the racket it was making. I'm not sure you can legitimately hoon in a beige Allegro, but you can do something to that effect if you try hard enough.

[Angrydicky]

This looks HAWT.

[DodgyBastard]

Got mine for nothing and sold it for £750, new owner has cleaned it and now wants £1200 for it! Yours looks better than mine did so I'd say it was definitely worth the asking price...

[worldofceri]

Barrett is teh_doctor102 AICMFP!

[ruffgeezer]

I know of a food source of spares for this, I remember spotting it and thinking "that's really tidy, why is that here?" before rounding it and finding a rather nice lamppost shape midship passenger side.

 

The ugly green bastard certainly didn't deserve that.

[Station]

I've always* wanted one of these, but I find BL stuff is really difficult to sell so will never buy one ever again.

[Angrydicky]

I've never come across that problem, as I've never bought a car with the intention of selling it again. As you say, the market for rusty hearing aid beige Allegro 3's, with crumpled doors and collapsed seats is quite small, probably 50% of potential buyers are on this very forum!

I'd love it but I know if end up pulling it apart and 'doing a Maestro' with loads of welding, paintwork and new parts. And I really do need to get the Somerset sorted out.

[oman5]

Does anyone know how much work it is to put a 1750 e series into a 1.3 aggro?

[barrett]

Probably more hassle than it's worth tbh, the 1.3 is absolutely fine in this. I would guess that the extra weight of the 1750 would probably negate any benefits the extra CCs would bring in any situation other that straight line acceleration. I could be talking out of my arse of course.

 

Anyway, this deffo needs the clutch looking at, I drove it all day today but the clutch is totally gone now so it's been shonky downchanges all day. As I suspected you don't actually need a clutch to change up from 2nd-3rd-4th so it's still very much usable. Anyone know how much of a major undertaking it would be to do that? I am time poor, and also cash poor. And skills poor. So it netter be easy.

[Cavcraft]

They made a 1750 All-ag didn't they? I can't see it being too hard to do.

Obv. the best solution would be to fit either a Perkins Prima or a RED TOP, YO.

[Craig the Princess]

1750 transplant is fairly simple, as long as you have engine, gearbox, engine mounts and radiator. There is a performance improvement, the 1750 equipe is rapid.

[scruff]

If it's just the clutch hydraulics gone Barrett it shouldn't be too difficult to do albeit a bit fiddly. I am assuming these things have hydraulic clutch mechanisms of course.

[Sigmund Fraud]

If it's just the clutch hydraulics gone Barrett it shouldn't be too difficult to do albeit a bit fiddly. I am assuming these things have hydraulic clutch mechanisms of course.

 

Correct ! The slave cylinder is the usual culprit and it it can really be removed, rebuilt and replaced during a lunch break. Replacing the friction bits is a bit more involved, and you ideally need a special puller, but it's still much easier than in most moderns.